Somme Mud

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ISBN 10: 0553819135 / ISBN 13: 9780553819137

Published by -, 2008

About this Item

Somme Mud This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping.

Seller Inventory # 7719-9780553819137

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Somme Mud
• Publisher: -
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0553819135
• ISBN 13: 9780553819137
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

'It's the end of the 1916 winter and the conditions are almost unbelievable. We live in a world of Somme mud. We sleep in it, work in it, fight in it, wade in it and many of us die in it. We see it, feel it, eat it and curse it, but we can't escape it, not even by dying...'
Edward Lynch enlisted when he was just 18 - one of thousands of fresh-faced men who were proudly waved off by the crowds as they embarked for France. It was 1916 and the majority had no idea of the reality of the Somme trenches, of the traumatised soldiers they would encounter there, of the innumerable, awful contradictions of war. Private Lynch was one of those who survived, and on his return home, wrote Somme Mud in pencil in over 20 school exercise books, perhaps in the hope of coming to terms with all that he had witnessed there?
Written from the perspective of an ordinary 'Tommy' and told with dignity, candour and surprising wit, Somme Mud is a testament to the human spirit: for out of the mud that threatened to suck out a man's soul rises a compelling story of humanity and friendship.
For all who are marking the centenary of the Great War, it is a rare and precious find.

From the Inside Flap

‘It’s the end of the 1916 winter and the conditions are almost unbelievable. We live in a world of Somme mud. We sleep in it, work in it, fight in it, wade in it and many of us die in it. We see it, we feel it, eat and curse it, but we can’t escape it, not even by dying . . .’

Private Edward Lynch enlisted in the army aged just eighteen. As his ship set sail for France, the band played ‘Boys of the Dardanelles’ and the crowd proudly waved off their young men – men who had no notion of the reality of the trenches of the Somme; of the pale-faced, traumatized soldiers they would encounter there; of the mud and blood and the innumerable contradictions of war.

Upon his return from France in 1919, Private Lynch recorded his experiences on the Western Front in twenty school exercise books, perhaps in the hope of making sense of and coming to terms with all that he had witnessed. Edited and published here for the first time, Lynch’s story is a rare and precious find: a personal account that vividly captures the horror and magnitude of the First World War, written from the perspective of an ordinary infantryman.

Told with dignity, candour and surprising wit, Somme Mud stands as a testament to the power of the human spirit – for out of the mud that threatens to suck out a man’s very soul rises a compelling true story of humanity and friendship.